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This was a big thrill for me. It was my first official event as P&G Beauty Ambassador. And we all had to keep the product top secret. Many of the guests thought I was launching a DAPHNE® fabric softener (nice, but no haha). The words “iconic brand” got them all stumped. I couldn’t even tell my friends what brand we were launching.

When the product was revealed, there was a collective gasp among the audience. It was amazing to witness. We all remember Camay.

Camay was first introduced in 1926 as a “white, pure soap for women.” Camay eventually became known as “the soap for beautiful women.” All around the world, Camay empowered women with confidence and promised them that with every bath “you will captivate him with this fragrance.”

P&G Beauty asked me to walk the guests through each scent — vanilla, grapefruit and rose. This is the similar thing I do when Bench develops my home scent line.

Each table had samples of the scents.

Opus was converted into a boudoir-like setting. Once you entered you could smell the beautiful scents wafting through the air. This is the Creme Vanilla Boudoir. Incidentally all the vignettes were totally “me”. We even have a bed like this at home. Vanilla’s such a yummy scent.

Dynamique Camay Grapefruit Boudoir. A study shows that in the presence of the scent of grapefruit, a woman can be perceived to be 6 years younger than her actual age. This got a lot of reaction when I said this on stage.

And just as iconic as the brand itself, the bathtub has to be part of every Camay event or commercial. This was filled with rose petals.

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We had a very slow breakfast this morning with kids playing and watching TV. Pretty normal stuff. I wanted time to lounge around with them before I go on with my day and finish my Christmas errands. It’s so hard to have to bring them to the mall. I lose focus and end up not accomplishing much. So until we start our Christmas events, they are stuck at home.

I often wonder about the memories my kids will have about their childhood. I know they love our house. They’ve expressed claim over it, “I will never leave this home. Even when I grow up and get married, I will live with you forever.” So I guess that’s a good sign that we have a happy home. Happy family.

I grew up in a similar environment except we had that unexpected turn of events when we moved to another country. There were four of us children in two batches. First was my brother and me. Then six years later, my two sisters. We had a very unique but simple childhood in the Philippines. Unique because we grew up in the air base. Life was so simple then. Everyone knew everyone. All the kids in the neighbourhood played together. To this day, our friendships remain. Our childhood games involved climbing trees and water tanks, playing in the rain, baking and eating cinnamon rolls in neighbours kitchens, bonfires, summer sports and Halloween dances. Villamor (or Nichols as it was known) was picturesque and lovely.

While lounging with the kids, I went through my Flickr albums and found these old letters that my Dad scanned. Dad is very sentimental. He has kept many of our significant things – art, letters, umbilical cords!

These letters are insane! Proof that we grew up in a different time. Wait til you get to my letter!

Disclaimer: We were a happy healthy family. No one is an alcoholic.

My brother wanted to be a matador! He turned everything into a bullfighter’s cape – towels, my skirts, blankets. He tried turning all of us into the bull too, but I was too smart to fall for that. In his adult life he lived his childhood fantasy by going to Pamplona, Spain by himself and ran with the bulls.

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My siblings know me so well. And I miss them so much. This morning I got an email from my brother. It just had this picture and no captions.

The subject line read: BCE Place this morning.

My brother and sisters know that this is one of my favourite spaces in Toronto. I was still living there when this was being built by Santiago Calatrava. The space merges an old bank building and a tall skyscraper into an amazing visual feast. My brother’s office used to be in this building and we would often make this our meeting place.

Hanni sent me this by Twitter yesterday. The CN Tower all decked out in lights.

I love Christmas lights. I love how crazy we get in Manila with our Christmas lights. Everything is so theatrical and stunning! I love that we can have an exaggerated Christmas and still wear Tshirts and open-toed shoes.

Now it’s my turn to show my family how Christmas is like in Manila this year.

Rockwell by far has the most elegant Christmas lights. Every year they turn on these rope lights that I assume are permanently attached to the tall buildings. The line of lights extend all the way to the ramp off EDSA.

Ayala Avenue used to be the king of all Christmas lights. I remember how crazy it was here in the early 2000’s. But in the past few years they seemed to have toned it down. This year they finally used LED lights.

If I were the designer I would have skipped the artificial tree silhouette and shrubs. I’d have extended the lights all the way to the palm leaves for a perfect tropical Christmas theme. But then it would look just like Rockwell’s side walks.

But perhaps the reason Ayala Avenue is a bit subdued was because the Ayala Triangle Park completely went all out! This has become a wonderful family tradition. Every year for the past three years we take the kids to see the lights and sound symphony at the Ayala Triangle.

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Once in a while I get to do mommy-daughter baking activities with the kids. I have some decorative cupcake holders and sprinkles on standby. Nothing fancy or Pinterest-able.

For simple school birthdays, I’ve made snack kits. Nothing major.

Of all the party favours I put together, this is my favourite. I bought hand-made and hand-painted bird houses in Tagaytay and packaged them pretty velvet ribbons and bird seeds. We made this for Stella’s first birthday.

I’ve had moments of panic like when I had to buy a regular mocha cake and print out my own Fancy Nancy character just so Lily could have the cake of her dreams at her school party. I also had to comb through a few branches of Goldilocks just to buy decorative flowers because they limit each purchase to 10. I don’t know why they care if people buy 10 or 50 flowers.

I was able to make it up to her with a Marta Matute cake at her house party. After this I stopped the business of having two celebrations. Haha.

With this new discovery, I don’t think I’ll ever have to panic again. I can host parties for my girls with or without fancy cakes or bird houses. This little Manila-based online shop has all the beautiful paper products we only used to see on Pinterest! And the prices are so friendly! The site is called Paper Chic Studio and true to its name their products are very chic!

Baking Cups, box of 24 P160

I’m going nuts over these paper straws!

Finally! Paper straws in the cutest patterns – stripes and dots. These are biodegradable.